Risk perception in fire evacuation behavior revisited: definitions, related concepts, and empirical evidence.

Max T Kinateder,Paul A Reneke,Richard D Peacock,Erica D Kuligowski

doi:10.1186/s40038-014-0005-z

Abstract

Risk perception (RP) is studied in many research disciplines (e.g., safety engineering, psychology, and sociology). Definitions of RP can be broadly divided into expectancy-value and risk-as-feeling approaches. In the present review, RP is seen as the personalization of the risk related to a current event, such as an ongoing fire emergency; it is influenced by emotions and prone to cognitive biases. We differentiate RP from other related concepts (e.g., situation awareness) and introduce theoretical frameworks relevant to RP in fire evacuation (e.g., Protective Action Decision Model and Heuristic-Systematic approaches). Furthermore, we review studies on RP during evacuation with a focus on the World Trade Center evacuation on September 11, 2001 and present factors modulating RP as well as the relation between perceived risk and protective actions. We summarize the factors that influence perception risk and discuss the direction of these relationships (i.e., positive or negative influence, or inconsequential) and conclude with presenting limitations of this review and an outlook on future research.

Highlights

Occupants need to reach a place of safety during building fire emergencies
The crucial point in the pre-evacuation period is the decision of occupants to evacuate after they have received initial fire cuesa, which marks the transition from pre-evacuation to evacuation behavior
For the purpose of the present literature review, we followed the steps for a systematic literature review suggested by Khan et al (2003): Step 1 Framing questions for a review: The following main research questions were formulated: What is risk perception (RP)? And what role does RP play during building fire evacuation? These questions comprise the headings for the main chapters of this review

Summary

Introduction

Evacuation behavior enables building occupants to do so (ISO/IEC 2008). The crucial point in the pre-evacuation period is the decision of occupants to evacuate after they have received initial fire cuesa, which marks the transition from pre-evacuation to evacuation behavior. This decision is potentially dependent on occupants’ risk perception (RP) and other human factors. For a recent review of human factors in building evacuation, see Ronchi and Nilsson (2013)

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